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Hunter's Heart Brittanys

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Page Updated December 28, 2002

FAQ Topics included in this section:
* About Brittany Spaniels
* Bringing Home Your New Puppy
* Puppy Training
* Miscellaneous

This section features questions we are frequently asked - by people who are either looking into getting a puppy/dog or have already purchased one of our Brittanys.

Q. Is it OK to bring a Brittany puppy home when the family is gone during business hours (for work/school)? Is a Brittany suited to being alone during the day?
A. Gary & I brought our puppies home when we were both unavailable during business hours. Brittanys do fine when left alone. (Of course, they love to sleep on the floor in the bedroom with their master and always prefer to be included in the family's activities.)

  If nobody is home during business hours, you'll still have to arrange for somebody to let the puppy out for potty every 4 hours during housetraining.  And you should make an effort to spend as much time with the puppy as possible when you get home.

Q. Should we have any concerns about the Brittany Spaniel being a good fit for a busy family with young children?
A. Brittany Spaniels are excellent family companions. They are gentle, patient & trustworthy with children. And (since our puppies are well socialized and the dam & sire have never had any problems) we have no reservations  about having them around young children. They bond closely to their family and are so loyal that they have been known to defend their masters when dangerous situations arise.

But we still believe that the child and the puppy should be supervised.  When a child is less than 5 years old, the puppy may tend to think of them as a littermate instead of a human.  The puppy has to learn that every human member of the household ranks above them, including the child.   The child should practice things like taking away the puppy's food & toys and disciplining the puppy if he nips too hard in play, under adult supervision.  At the same time, the child should be taught how to handle the puppy properly.  For example, if a child sits on the puppy's back and tries to "ride him", the puppy may be scared or injured.  Some children might not realize you can't pick the puppy up by his front legs alone; the body weight has to be supported by holding the rear with the other hand.  Children have to be taught how to pick the puppy up.

Q. Our house has a large, fenced yard and I get out most evenings for a walk or run but I am not sure that would 'take the edge off' for a Brittany. Do you find that Brittanys really need to run free daily in order to stay fit?
A. We try very hard to walk our adults daily. We usually go out for 35-45 minutes, working off steam on a 15-45 foot lead for the first half & heeling closely on a 4-6 foot lead for the second half. (We routinely use a Halti for our large adult male when he is on the longer lead, to stop him from pulling. Even the smallest Brittany could use one if a child is walking him, to ensure that full control is maintained. During heeling, a Halti should not be required.)

    Occasionally we can't walk the dogs, and just let them play together in our fenced yard. We let them run free in off leash areas, and when  hunting and hiking in the woods. With this amount of exercise, our vet was impressed with their degree of physical fitness (e.g. heartbeat & rate, muscle tone, body fat). Children who actively play with their  puppy/dog also help them use up all that energy.

Q. How should we potty train our puppy?
A.  Books about Brittanys do not recommend paper training: this teaches your dog that it's OK to eliminate on anything lying on the floor. It doesn't necessarily make sense to the dog that this doesn't extend to rugs, mats, blankets or books.

    We highly recommend that you crate/kennel train your puppy as soon as you bring him/her home.  The initial expense is well worth it. The reasoning behind this training is that dogs are den animals. It is instinctive for dogs to keep their den clean and to go outside to eliminate. They are most comfortable sleeping in enclosed spaces  and will naturally seek out these places (e.g. in a closet, under a low table, or in a crate/kennel with the door left open). This is natural canine behavior. Although we were initially shocked by  the idea of crate training, the more we learned, the more we came to see that it is not cruel. Not only that, it is a training technique that instinctively makes sense to a puppy: so it works.

    It will take time, and consistency, and lots of patience to teach your puppy. So decide what the rules of the house are & then stick to it. If your puppy has never been in a crate before, introduce him to the crate gradually. Every puppy varies, but expect housetraining to take at least a few weeks after you bring your puppy home. (Some perfectly normal puppies aren't fully housetrained until 4 1/2 months of age.) 

    To keep an eye on your puppy when you are together, you could keep him tethered to you with a leash attached to your belt (so the puppy can only get a few feet away.)  Put your puppy  in his crate/kennel whenever you can't constantly watch him e.g. you are out of the house or sleeping.  Make sure his crate isn't in an area that is too hot & sunny and that it has 1 or 2 toys in it that are durable & safe (to keep him occupied.)  Your puppy will try very hard not to eliminate in his/her "bed". But while he is growing & learning, expect some accidents.

    It is absolutely crucial that you clean up accidents properly, as soon as you find them. Use paper towels & elbow grease at first. Finish by applying an enzymatic stain & odor remover to the spot. While household products like detergent may seem to get rid of the mess well enough, your puppy will still be able to detect some of the smell. As long as your puppy can smell his poop/pee, it triggers an elimination reflex, and your puppy is likely to have repeat accidents in the same spot.

    Anticipate elimination when it usually happens: when the puppy wakes up, as soon as the pup comes out of the crate, after eating/drinking, after playing, and before bed. At these times, bring your puppy your puppy out to his toilet area in your yard.  This spot should smell like poop & pee: if he already used the area for potty, leave a part of his stool there for the first few weeks of housetraining. (You could spray it with puppy housetraining spray, if you prefer). Watch your puppy while he's at his toilet area. Immediately praise the puppy for eliminating in the proper spot every time he does it. All members of your family should always use the same words e.g. "Good business!", or "Hurry". After verbal praise, play with the puppy for a short time before going inside.

    You should also bring the pup outside every time he shows the signs that he needs to eliminate e.g. turning in circles, smelling the floor, backing up or squatting, and scratching or whining at the door that leads outside. Whenever the puppy begins to eliminate inside, say "No" in a gruff tone of voice, and rush him outdoors to his spot. You should rush your puppy outside even if he has already started to poop or pee. Punishments for accidents such as rubbing the puppy's nose in it, or making him sleep in a soiled kennel don't make sense to puppies. They won't make the puppy housetrained, but they probably will make him very afraid of his master.

    You must always catch your puppy "in the act" to be able to give him a correction that he is able to understand. If you give the correction more than five seconds after he is done pooping or peeing inside, he will not understand what he is being punished for. So if you don't notice the puppy while he is having the accident and you come across it later, you should consider it your mistake. Clean it up & try to either watch the puppy more closely or put him in his crate until he is reliably housetrained.

    If your puppy doesn't pee while he's outside, wait a little longer. Try walking him back to the house, and then bring him out again after 5 - 10 minutes.

    If you are going to crate-train, remember that the puppy lives with you, not in the crate. You should take the puppy out every day for a long period of time to play, for "pre - training", and to enjoy your company. Once the puppy is reliably house trained you can leave the door to the crate open, and let the puppy have free run of the house (even  when unsupervised).

Q. What size crate should I purchase?
A. For everyday use around the house you should purchase a kennel that is large enough for the adult dog to stand up (to turn around) & to lie down stretched out. You may feel more comfortable with a larger kennel so that you can put food, water, toys & bedding inside with the dog. We keep our 55 lb. dog in a Giant size Furrarri kennel & our 30 lb. bitch in the Extra Large. Both adults sometimes choose to sleep together in the Giant kennel, and there is room to spare.

    It is not usually necessary to purchase a puppy sized kennel for a young pup: you can buy a larger kennel that he/she can grow into. The only problem to watch out for is that if the kennel is too large, you may have problems with potty training. If the kennel is quite oversized, your puppy may have accidents in one corner & be able to sleep comfortably in another corner that your pup sees as "far enough away".

    The exception is when you ship a puppy/dog. In that case, be careful to provide them with a kennel that fits their size at present, so they aren't bounced around in transit.

Q. When we pick up our new puppy at 9-10 weeks, what & when should we feed him/her?
A. For our last litter at 9-10 weeks of age, we fed each pup solely Nutro Max Puppy dry food, without any added liquid. Each puppy ate approximately 2-3 Cups (total) daily.

  We feed 3 meals of 30 min duration. We start feedings at 10am & finish at 6pm. We take away the food & water at about 6pm so that the puppies are less likely to have accidents overnight. The time when you feed him/her is important because keeping a regular schedule will make potty training easier.

    You can supplement his/her diet with no more than 1/3 to 1/2 a can of Nutro Max canned puppy food. Any more makes his/her "business" a little harder to clean up.

    We experimented with various premium brands of dog food & have had the most success with Nutro Max i.e. our puppies/dogs have the nicest coat quality, fewer & more solid & less stinky poop. But there are many other premium brands that other people prefer.  You should choose a brand of food which has been tested & proven to contain nutrients suitable for your dog's stage of life (e.g. puppy, mating/pregnant/lactating bitch, adult, senior). These brands will be labeled "has passed the AAFCO  feeding trials for....stage of life."

    Bargain brands without this AAFCO label have uncertain nutritional value. You will have a difficult time housetraining your puppy if he is having diarrhea & loose stools because of the food you are feeding him. Although it seems at first that premium brands of dog food (e.g. Nutro Max) cost more, they don't. That's because the dog eats smaller quantities of the premium food. An added bonus of these brands is that your dog will produce less poop, and his/her coat & skin will be noticeably healthier.

    If you are going to change brands, it is better to make the change gradually over the course of 1 week. (i.e. Increase the proportion of the new food every day until your puppy is eating only the new food.) If you change the dog's diet more quickly, your dog may get an upset stomach & diarrhea.

Q. How far along is our new puppy in her paper training? House training?
A. Most of our puppies are doing quite well by the time they go to their new homes. They hit the papers most of the time and have been going out first thing in the morning for a few weeks now. We recommend that you do not continue paper training and go right to having the puppy always poop & pee outdoors (at a spot you choose).  The only reason we used paper training is because with a litter of 8, it was physically impossible to catch individual puppies who looked like they were about to eliminate & move them to a spot outdoors. By the time we moved 1 or 2 puppies outdoors, a few more already had accidents on the bare floor inside! 

    You can leave some papers (sprayed with Bitter Apple) by the door in case you can't let the puppy out "on schedule" & he absolutely has to go. Ideally, you would let the pup out every hour or so at first, and then continue making it a little longer while he/she continues not having accidents.

    We introduce all of our puppies to crate training while they are with us. At first the litter slept in a large crate with their mother. Eventually the progressed to sleeping in a crate without their mother. We do not have to force the puppies into their crate: they are usually tired out when bedtime arrives and will go into the crate on their own with some encouragement from us.  By the time the puppies move to their new homes, they are all  usually able to "hold it" overnight. ( Of the entire litter, none of the puppies has had an accident overnight in over a week.)  Even when they awake overnight, they don't disturb us except on the few occasions when they cry to be let outside for "potty".

Q. We aren't comfortable with crate training. What are the alternatives?
A. We have done a lot of reading about housetraining & have housetrained puppies using both crate training & paper training methods. We definitely prefer to crate train our puppies.  But you should choose whatever method you believe in for you & your puppy. (Whether you are housetraining or doing advanced obedience training for competition.)   Housetraining may be the most difficult bit of training you & your puppy go through. Whichever training method you choose, you should be consistent. Mixed messages will be confusing. 

    1) One alternative is to paper train e.g. in an enclosed area of your basement or kitchen. This method may be required at first if you live in a high-rise apartment. (It is too far to pick up a puppy that needs to eliminate & rush him outside when you live in an apartment. Also, it is not safe to bring your puppy outside to areas where other dogs have pooped & peed, until after the puppy vaccinations are completed at 16 weeks.)

    The idea is to teach your puppy only to eliminate on the spot you choose. (And we're assuming that you would teach him to eliminate outside instead when he's a little bit older.)  Choose an area with a floor that is easy to clean: not carpet. Cover the entire floor in this area with plastic and them a few layers of newspaper. If you don't spray the newspaper with Apple Bitter, your puppy may eat it. (You might have more luck with a "Pooch Pad": about $30 at Petsmart. It is similar to a large, flat absorbent cloth diaper. Your puppy won't eat it, and it can be washed with bleach.)  Your puppy's kennel, bed, food, water, & toys should remain in one spot. As soon as you notice a mess, clean it up. Gradually decrease the area of floor that you cover. Eventually, your puppy should consistently seek out an area of about 4 newspaper sheets for elimination.

    2)  Another choice is to purchase a large wire pen & keep you puppy in it outdoors while you are out. (This method carries the added bonus of protecting your gardens & landscaping from a destructive little puppy.)  But if you do this, you must take the puppy out every day for a significant period of time to play, for training, and to enjoy your company.  

    3)  Once your puppy has completed his vaccinations, you could send him/her to doggy daycare instead of leaving him/her home alone during the workday.

Q. What is our puppy used to sleeping on?
A. The whole litter sleep together in a Giant size Furrarri kennel. We put them in the kennel at about 10 pm, and let them outside at about 7 am to eliminate. They have cotton bedding (blankets) to  sleep on.    

Q. Is there any particular toy that I should purchase for my new puppy?
A. We have a variety of toys which each of the puppies has tested at one time or another. Their favorites seem to be:

• Our favorite toy is the Kong.  It comes in different sizes, is good for finding and retrieving games, and a Kong stuffed with food is a great way to leave your dog with something to do when you go out.  Kongs can go in the microwave and dishwasher, and can be stuffed with Rollover or a huge variety of foods.  The Kong company has many creative recipes online at:
  http://www.kongcompany.com/how2use.html Another site with Kong stuffing recipes (and many other good recipes for treats) is: http://www.bowchow.com/treatref.html#kongs  For example, use peanut butter as the glue to hold together a mixture of treats of various sizes.
• the fleece-like teddy bear, bone, octopus, etc. with a squeaker inside
• large rawhide bones, especially basted ones
• canvas retrieval dummy (especially when synthetic bird scent applied onto it). If you use a hard object e.g. heavy wooden dumbbell with a puppy you plan to hunt with, he/she may develop a "hard mouth" that will damage
  birds.
• C.E.T. medium dental chews (have enzymatic plaque remover), which can only be purchased through a veterinary clinic
• "food ball" i.e. Puzzle for puppies. Has small hole that you use to put food treats inside. The puppies must roll the ball so that the hole faces downwards so that the treats come out.
• footstools and stepping stools to climb on top of, barriers to jump over (e.g. we used an aluminum tub)
• "kiddie pool" filled with water
• rope toys of assorted sizes
• plastic hedgehogs

    We put some of the more durable toys in the crate with the puppies overnight  (e.g. small Kong, but not the rope toys, since the puppies might chew off some of the strings & swallow them). You definitely do not need to buy all of these toys. 1 or 2 favorite toys is enough to keep your puppy occupied, and you can make do with objects around the house.

    Every evening, we put all of the toys away & take them out in the morning. Along with taking the toys & treats form the puppies' mouths, removing the toys reminds the puppies that the toys belong to humans, not to them.

Q. Is there anything else you feel I should know to help make his/her transition from your home to mine easier?
A. The first day/night is the hardest. If you are able to bring your new puppy home on a weekend, that would be ideal. Plan to spend a lot of time with your puppy that day to get him/her used to you and a little more comfortable with the new surroundings. Try to keep it to just you and your immediate family. Let your friends wait a bit.

    We will send you a small cloth that the Dam has been sleeping on to help remind the puppy of his/her first home. When left alone, puppies find the noise of a TV, radio, or ticking clock soothing, as well as a warm water bottle.

    Your new puppy is sure to cry, but will eventually settle down for the night. If you can keep the pup in his/her kennel in your bedroom for the first few nights, he/she will probably appreciate your company. (That is if you can withstand the crying period!)

    It is not a good idea to take the crying puppy out of the kennel and physically comfort him/her.  This only allows the pup to train you: the pup cries & you will respond with love & attention.

Q. How much time do you spend with your dogs daily?  Is it better to bring a puppy home when I could take time off work? or start off pretty much from the beginning with him on his own during the workdays?  
A. It's ideal if you can bring your new puppy home on a weekend. This way, you can spend lots of time helping  him to get adjusted.

    Other than this, it's probably best to start off with the routines you expect for an adult dog as soon as you can. It makes sense that if you don't want your dog sleeping in your bed for the rest of his life, you probably don't want to allow your puppy to sleep in your bed either. Why should spending time alone be any different?

    Dogs can & do suffer from separation anxiety if they don't get used to spending time alone. And realistically, no dog owner can be with their dog constantly. Our goal is a healthy balance. We get our puppies gradually accustomed to being left alone in a crate when we aren't around e.g. during the workday. A Kong (stuffed with Rollover) or chew toy helps mentally stimulate him when spending time alone. If you have more than one pet they will keep each other busy (even if it's a dog & cat combination).

    Whenever we can, we take our dogs with us: going out for groceries, visiting friends, camping & hiking. We also let our dogs sleep on the floor in our master bedroom. (To do this with a puppy, start by either keeping your pup in his crate inside the bedroom, or by keeping him tethered by a leash to the foot of your bed.)  It's a nice way of keeping each other company without making any demands.

Q. Our family members each have a different 'way' with our pup/dog. Would we do better if we were at least consistent? A. It's best if all of the people who will be giving commands to the pup/dog are consistent. For example, if you were to say "come sit down!", it's confusing to the dog because you've given 3 entirely different commands. Similarly, if I use the command "Off" to mean stop jumping & put your feet on the ground, but Gary says "Down" to mean the same thing, it's not fair to punish when we are the ones making the mistake. If everyone agrees to expect the same action for the same word, you will probably have better luck teaching the basic commands.

Q. If you are walking your dogs on a long lead, i.e. 30 feet (or more), do you use the retractable type or just regular nylon?
A. We have both retractable & nylon leads. We definitely prefer the latter.

    Our retractable lead was the professional training lead from Flexi. The spring on it is still working after about 3 1/2 years (but the brake is no longer reliable.) Every time it is raining or snowing out it gets dirty. Unless you clean it and dry it at its full length the dirt gets stuck in the mechanism & it jams. It is heavy to carry & it's too large to fit in your pocket.

    The nylon lead is lighter, & if you want to heel, you can just put your pup/dog in the "sit/stay" & bundle up the extra length in your right hand (so you don't really need to carry both a long lead & a 4-6 ft lead (for heeling) unless you prefer to do so.

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